When you are discussing the matter of vertigo, you are most likely talking about benign positional vertigo, or BPV. What happens here is that you actually feel a sudden spinning when you move your head in a certain direction or position.
To understand BPV better, certain parts of the inner have to be tackled first. The inner ear actually has semicircular canals that hold fluid which, in turn, is laden with special sensors. These sensors actually send signals to the brain, informing it of any position changes made by the head. With BPV, there is actually an unwelcome formation of crystal structures all over the fluid in your inner ear. When you move your head suddenly, these crystals would bounce inside your inner ear wherever they may. Some of them would hit the many nerve endings, thus, leading to vertigo.
It is not quite clear why formation of such crystals occur, let alone why they are dislodged and bounce around inside the inner ear. A lot of studies have been conducted on the matter, and these are the things that most likely cause such dislodgement.
Head injuries
Head injuries, when they are pretty serious, can cause the breakdown of minuscule particles in the inner ear. When these break down, it becomes easier for these smaller particles to become dislodged and bounce inside the inner ear. Thus, head injuries that can cause trauma to the inner ear can be a likely cause for BPV.
Viral infections
A common viral infection that causes vertigo is labyrinthitis. The labyrinth is actually one of the many parts of the inner ear. Labyrinthitis is when this part becomes inflamed due to infection. When this happens, the information sent from the labyrinth to the brain would be distorted, to the point that different signals would be sent by both the labyrinth and the eyes. This would then lead to the brain misinterpreting the signals. Thus, vertigo would set in.
Alcohol
Intoxication is indeed one of the common causes of BPV. When you are intoxicated, your inner ear’s sensors that maintain your balance become intoxicated as well. This is due to the exposure to alcohol in the system. The sensors are then unable to carry out their normal functioning of maintaining balance. Thus, there is every room for this balance disorder to set in.
These are just some of the causes of benign positional vertigo. There are still a lot more; however, these are the more common ones experienced by the many people afflicted with the condition.